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Gafftop

6K views 26 replies 26 participants last post by  keithw 
#1 ·
It seems like every year I want to focus on catching something new. This past weekend we got a couple small gafftop around 3 lbs and they were pretty good fighters. We were targeting small sharks and reds in the surf (which I never do, but my little bro and girlfriend wanted to catch a shark). I'm always fishing artificials in the back lakes so don't see to many gafftop. So I'm curious about where and how to catch gafftop? What do they like? Food and habitat? Surf or bay? I want to try and catch a big one just to challenge myself. I don't have a boat by the way.
 
#5 ·
I had one hit a topwater earlier this week. I've caught them on mirrorlures spoons and of course soft plastics. They are pretty aggressive. Itseems to be a good year for them and I think you could catch them in the bay or in the surf. Natural bait would be a good way to target them. So catch all you can and thin em out! And, much obliged...
 
#9 ·
Be careful handling those gafftop. I know man had to go to the emergency room this past week. He was finned in the stomach and couldn't pull it out after cutting it off with pliers. Talk about nasty. Can't go in the water for awhile. It was the pectoral fin "what got him"...
 
#17 ·
I heard that if you lick the slime you will have a hallucinatory trip.
I keep forgetting to try that one though.".

Catfish licking: a new high?

It could be the strangest thing anyone ever asked Tolly Van Brunt.

He was at a boat basin in Franklin County, waiting for a buddy who'd gone to the bait shop.

They were headed out to the Gulf for some saltwater fishing.

A boy, maybe 17 or so, sidled up to him on the dock.
The kid wanted to make a deal. He'd buy any catfish the anglers caught that day.

"I told him they weren't any good to eat," Van Brunt said. "

And he says, `Yeah, I know that, but we'd like to get some. We've found a way to get high off the slime.'"

Oh, c'mon. Recreational use of fish goo? That has to be a joke, right?

Maybe. Maybe not.

Turns out, a story's been going around for years about hallucinogenic properties in the slime of a certain kind of saltwater catfish. But whether fact or urban legend is not exactly clear.

"I've heard of people licking them and getting zonked like they're on LSD," said Dr. John Hitron, with the Florida State University marine lab in St. Teresa Beach. "I'm not sure how true it is."

OK, first a few basics on the fish.

Most people call them gafftops or sailcats.

They're bottom-dwellers, comfortable in mud, usually sticking to bays and the shallow water along coastlines. Not too big, but feisty.

They have regular catfish whiskers and long, sharp spines on top. When hooked, they produce great big gobs of mucous that coat fishing lines, anglers and anything else that gets close.

And apparently, they're less than tasty.

So, what about this whole licking thing?

It's hard to tell where or how the story got started, but plenty of folks have heard it. Usually, the friend-of-a-friend version.

The anglers down at the Lanark Village Mart - a combination boat dock, bait shop and convenience store near Carrabelle - said last week that they all knew the tale. Same with the C-Quarters Marina, where the annual Big Bend Saltwater Classic is based.

Jack Rudloe's heard it, too.

He's the director of the Gulf Marine Specimen Lab in Panacea. A "hippie friend" was the first to tell him.

"He said, `Hey, I hear there's a real business there in licking catfish,'" Rudloe said.

The story's even on the Internet, especially the message boards where fishermen from around the Gulf of Mexico gather.

And Hitron, the FSU scientist, said he's heard it all over the country. In New England, the Pacific Northwest, the Florida Keys.

Not everyone's a believer.

"It's just hype," said Amy Noegel-Cohoon, whose husband runs a towboat service out of Carrabelle. "If it wasn't hype, they'd be a hot item."

Any evidence it's true? Not much.

Rudloe was curious enough to give it a taste - in the interest of science, of course.

Nothing happened to him, but he did make a discovery.

He said the mucous of most sea life, including snails and other fish, has a fairly bland taste. The gafftop was markedly different.

"It really had a strange chemical kind of taste to it," he said.

Franklin County fisherman Mark Nolton said he did the same thing after reading something about the slime in Florida Sportsman magazine.

"I was out about a year ago, and I thought, `I'm gonna try that,'" he said. "I put a little bit on my tongue, and it went numb instantly."

Hitron said it's possible the slime - a defense mechanism that helps protect the fish from injury and disease - has some neurotoxic qualities, as most fish with spines do.

But whether that means the stuff can send someone on a mind-altering trip, he couldn't say.

"I'll find out if you want me to," offered Van Brunt, who declined to provide catfish to the teenagers. "The next time I catch one, I'll put some in my mouth."

The dope on the catfish-slime-licking phenomenon.
March 10, 2005

Big news for catfish lickers and their parents: No doubt many of you have heard (or tried to discover firsthand) that licking saltwater catfish -commonly called sailcats- can produce a hallucinogenic high, and that hooked teenagers along the Gulf Coast are paying up to $200 for the opportunity to lap up the gooey substance that oozes from the skin of a freshly caught specimen.

News of catfish licking first broke five years ago in a Florida sportfishing magazine, but a more recent article in the Tallahassee Democrat ("Catfish Licking: A New High?") quickly spread over the Internet and became a hot topic among fishermen, teenagers, and concerned parents. In it, Dr. John Hitron of the Florida State University marine lab is quoted as saying, "I've heard of people licking ["catfish"] and getting zoned like they're on LSD."

Reportedly, when ingested, sailcat slime produces the sensation of being underwater. I should note, however, that the cats I have licked for journalistic purposes only have merely produced the sensation of having whiskers. And in fact, I do have whiskers.

The Democrat article doubtless informed many otherwise ignorant or skeptical parents, who were made aware of the need to investigate fishy odors, to periodically check teenagers' bedroom closets for saltwater fishing tackle, and to discourage unchaperoned parties at piers and beaches. Since then, uncorroborated anecdotal evidence seemed to suggest that parents might also check dresser drawers and book bags for doughballs, which, supposedly coated with the hallucinogenic slime, may go by the street names "dopeballs" and "cat-nips."

With the practice widely known, the question of how long people have been secretly licking catfish became a topic of some speculation. Several anonymous and unaccredited linguists took a second look at the slang term cat. Thought to mean "happening dude" and widely used during the freewheeling jazz era of the 1920s and revived during the drug-induced years of the late 60s and early 70s, some believed it to be a reference to early catfish lickers.

These people and others, however, were no doubt shocked by the latest development: In a follow-up article, the Democrat has revealed that catfish licking is a hoax. Staff writer Tony Bridges announced:

OK, listen up catfish lickers. You've been punked.

There's no hallucinogen in the slime.


According to the article, Doug Olander, editor-in-chief of Sport Fishing Magazine, made the story up for an annual April Fool's special in 2000. Parents who suspected their teenagers of catfish licking are breathing a collective sigh of relief, while some would-be catfish lickers are likely breathing a collective sigh of disappointment. Despite the revelation, however, there is concern that it may do little to discourage the practice now that it has caught on.

Siding with caution, sport fishing authorities continue to discourage catfish licking, though with the news that catfish slime is actually harmless, they have since softened their stance. For those anglers who just can't help themselves, authorities merely recommend that if they intend to only lick, and not eat, a given sailcat, they should lick it as quickly as possible and return it to the water immediately thereafter.
 
#20 ·
A few years ago biologists were longlining a few bull redfish off the end of the Galveston jetty, I think on the Bolivar side, who knows maybe a quarter mile from the jetties at least. They reported catching "world class" gafftops that would have won the STAR tournament. Some serious TRs...might as well use a snapper rod on them.
 
#25 ·
I think the they will eat anything is covered. We have also said and heard they like mud also. Like when fishing trout with croaker you can still catch them on shell but when repeatedly pulling in snot sharks that you are in mud and need to move. I caught a little one on a top water last week also which was pretty cool.
 
#27 ·
gafftop..LOL

Fished the pass over the 4th of July weekend.. caught gafftop after gafftop. Then hooked a small one, had to get the pliers out, finally got it off dropped it on the ground.. And then accidently stepped on it. Dang it. Felt so dumb, the fin went in my heal and then I grabbed it to pull it off and stuck myself in the hand. So moral of this story BE CARFUL the sting does hurt.
 
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